Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have two questions for Mr. O'Leary and three for Mr. Jordan and his team. At the tail end of Mr. O'Leary's contribution, he talked about low or no-interest loans up to five years to local authorities from vacant properties. I may not have heard him properly. Will he cast his mind back to that?

The second point is a more general observation. Again, it is not necessary with regard to whether HFA does or does not loan but, because it is involved in lending for residential property, would Mr. O'Leary have any observations in terms of construction inflation? What is his general read of where he thinks the construction industry market is currently at? Everybody on the committee is keen to canvas as many views on where people think that is likely to go in the near future as it affects the plans before us.

I refer to Mr. Jordan as to turnkey competitions. Traditionally, it was just the local authorities and the AHBs that did turnkey properties for social housing. We know that it accounts for approximately half of new social housing. We now have AHBs looking for turnkeys with CREL. The LDA's Project Tosaigh is doing turn-keys. The Croí Cónaithe cities scheme includes turnkeys. Will Mr. Jordan provide more information than what we have to date about how it will be co-ordinated between multiple public actors?

If I was a developer with a site on Fenian Street and with planning permission for 100 units I would know a long queue of people who would be happy to buy those, both in the public and private sectors. How can we make sure that increased competition, and all of those public sector actors, including the Housing Agency, which are desperate to meet their targets, do not end up unintentionally inflating prices or increasing costs to the State as a result of that?

I refer to the review that was done on the social housing thresholds and how that limit interacts with the cost rental rents. The Minister has told us on a number of occasions that the Housing Agency was involved in that review. I know the witnesses cannot tell us the outcome of the review because it is with the Minister etc. However, is there anything they can say to the committee about where that social housing threshold eligibility is? They might not be able; they might be constrained by the fact that it is with the Minister but we are all keen to hear where that lands.

I have a lot of sympathy with the Acting Chairman's queries around the caps. I am more interested in the council loans; I am still not a convert to the shared equity loan but the point is the same on both sides and it affects all areas. I take the point that the level of house price inflation outside of Dublin and the greater Dublin area is greatest. However, do we also run the risk that if we chase that house price inflation, we could contribute to further inflation? This might be a question for Mr. Baneham. I am not arguing against the Acting Chairman because there is no point in having a council loan where there are virtually no properties available. If one looks at the Rebuilding Ireland home loan in Dublin, for example, particularly in Dublin city, the average loan offering over the last four or five years was about €200,000. One would not buy any kind of home in Dublin city, not even a three-bedroom, two-bedroom or one-bedroom home, for anything below €300,000 and now it is anything below €350,000 to €370,000. Are there potential inflationary consequences to chasing those limits or is that at least being factored into the review with which the Housing Agency is helping to inform the Department?